Obama “Indentured Servant to Coal”

If a foreign enemy had done to this country what this industry has done to West Virginia, it would be regarded as an act of war.” – Robert Kennedy, Jr.

“If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said after a recent tour of West
Virginia while filming his documentary, Crimes Against Nature. Kennedy described the environmental devastation as the worst he’d seen anywhere.

Mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) is a radical form of strip mining used in the Appalachian regions of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Every day, coal companies detonate 2,500 tons of explosives to literally blow off the tops of mountains in order to reach thin seams of coal beneath the earth. These explosions are equal to the power of a Hiroshima bomb dropping every week, annihilating some of
the most biologically diverse temperate hardwood forest habitat in the world, and destroying and displacing entire human communities.

People who stay in their homes and communities confront numerous problems including contaminated drinking water, damage to homes from blasting, flooding, coal waste impoundment leaks, the threat of coal sludge impoundment failures, and respiratory and other health problems related to mining activities. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) 1,200 miles of Appalachian rivers and streams have already been buried, and 470 of Appalachia’s mountains have been permanently destroyed. The EPA also estimates that without a significant policy shift, mountaintop removal and other surface mining will destroy nearly 1.5 million acres in the Central Appalachian region by the end of the decade, an area larger than the state of Delaware.

Source: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

Robert F. Kennedy: The coal industry and the carbon industry in general are the largest contributors to the political process. So, you know, you have politicians who have essentially become indentured servants to these, and adopt the talking points of these industries.

In his interview with ABC News, conducted last week, Kennedy said, “you have very sensible politicians, including great men like Barack Obama who feel the need to parrot the talking points of this industry that is so destructive to our country.”

The opening Kennedy quote at the top of this article was captured by Filmmaker BJ Gudmundsson who travels into the coalfields and documents the devastation caused by mountaintop removal. She travels around the country presenting her completed works to anyone who will listen. On Thursday Night, 4/23/09 she gave a presentation at the Princeton (WV) Public Library. By coincidence, the coal association had a meeting in the same town, with major politicians invited. A local NBC TV station found the irony of the dichotomy irresistible. They sent a crew to BJ’s show and a crew to the Coal meeting. At 11:00pm they opened their newscast with the “show.”

Momentum is growing across West Virginia to stop mountain top removal mining.

Filmmaker B.J. Gundmundsson says she’s lived in West Virginia her entire life.

However, the day she first saw a mountaintop removal site, she was shaken to the core.

She made it her personal mission to take the public on a journey with her, through the mountains to expose the ugliness she describes as mountaintop removal.

“What had flabergasted me was that not all of West Virginia was not rising up in revolt against this.” Gundmundsson says. “I realized that people weren’t rising up because they can’t see it. You can’t get to it. You can’t just drive up to these places.”

Gudmundsson takes you on that journey in her film, Rise Up West Virginia.

She is now sharing her message and her film with other West Virginians and people around the country.

We’re not only loosing our freedom, we’re loosing our state! We’re being annihilated here! We’ve got the best politicians money can buy. – CNN Hero, Mountainkeeper, Larry Gibson.

WVVA – NBC TV

King Coal had to respond. They probably did not like the treatment their side of the story received. While they are talking about how great coal is the news producer laced images of blown up mountains into the story.

Anyway. Back to the Ross interview with Kennedy. This will tie together.

ROSS: So when you watched last fall with all the candidates, including President Obama talking about clean coal, what were you thinking when you watched all that?

KENNEDY: Oh, not only was I dismayed to see that, but also, if you looked at the presidential debates, the networks were allowing the coal industry to sponsor the debates. So that every single one of the presidential debates was sponsored by clean coal. So it’s not just that it’s corrupted the political process, but it’s corrupted essentially the American media as well.

Wealthy Politicians

ROSS: Have you seen the commercials they’re running now with President Obama, “Yes, we can” talking about clean coal? What’s your reaction to that?

KENNEDY: Well, again, I think it’s sad when political leaders feel that they are so indebted to these industries that they, and so fearful of them, essentially, that they have to endorse conditions that clearly are wrong.

ROSS: And you say that about President Obama?

KENNEDY: Yeah. Anybody who looks at this understands that the term “clean coal” is a dirty lie. That coal is neither cheap nor clean. It’s devastating to our country, it’s bad for our economy, it’s devastating towards our communities, and we have wonderful alternatives in this country if we’d only invest in them.

Final update on Princeton, WV. Before the filmmaker got out of town she heard, first hand, how political and angry this debate is. Princeton is raising money to build a new community library. During the film presentation the library director got a phone call from the Mayor. It seems a local coal baron was directing a matching fund to help build the library. He called the mayor and told him because the library was showing “that” movie, he was withdrawing the 50% match.

If you are following indentured servants, then where are you going?

ROSS: And do you think President Obama should reverse his course on this?

KENNEDY: Absolutely. There’s no such thing as clean coal, we’re destroying the Appalachians. And I guarantee you if we could get President Obama to fly over the Cumberland, to fly over the Appalachian mountains and see the destruction that’s occurring there, he would.

Note: Kennedy tried, after the ABC interview to back off the indentured servant comment. ABC then released the transcript of the entire interview. You can judge for yourself. Kennedy’s Backspace. and the full transcript.

I like Bobby Kennedy. He did not endorse Obama in the primary and he has been working to help stop the destruction of our beautiful mountains.

KENNEDY: My loyalties are to my country and not to any particular politician. And you know, I’ve been non-partisan. I’ve been 25 years as an environmental advocate, I’ve been non-partisan and bi-partisan. I don’t believe in partisanship. If somebody does something wrong, I’m going to say it whether they’re Democrat or Republican.

Many environmentalists believe that Obama broke his promise to halt mountaintop removal. That is not quite fair to him. He did not say he would end the practice. I heard his comments to the groups. He said it was wrong and that he would study it. And some hopey followers think that his presence in office is what prompted the EPA to start doing their job. That is not quite fair to the EPA. I talked to regulators last year. They were convinced that, no matter who won the election, they would be un-tethered. They are reviewing certain mining permits. The Army Corps of Engineers, who issued those permits, are fighting on behalf of the coal industry. This is not over yet.

Obama is still promoting Coal-to-Liquid technology. Basically you toss coal in a hopper and then burn some more coal in a furnace to produce the heat that turns to coal in the hopper to a type of liquid fuel. This fuel will burn cleaner than coal, true. But two times the coal is needed for this process. The first batch is burned just like it is at a power plant and it means twice as many mountains will forever be gone. U.S. News (not your average anti-business rag) is not convinced either.

So, do not buy into this clean coal crap. It is like thinking that you can wipe the poop off of a turd. Go ahead. Try it. The video below is just 30 seconds, no poop and it is a hoot.

Film clips courtesy of Patchwork Films.